{"nrhp_refnum":"85003324","name":"Pierce Ranch","other_names":["Upper Pierce Point Ranch"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Point Reyes National Seashore","address_restricted":false,"city":"Inverness","county":"Marin County","state":"CA","lat":38.18756841600006,"lon":-122.9541588797473,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-12-06","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Agriculture","Historic - Non-Aboriginal","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic dairy ranch headquarters complex on Tomales Point within Point Reyes National Seashore near Inverness, Marin County, California, with buildings dating from about 1856 through the early 20th century, plus a ranch road and pier ruins on Tomales Bay.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the ranch is regionally significant in agriculture and industry as a leading mid-19th century dairy ranch that supplied butter and milk to San Francisco. It holds what local tradition calls the oldest surviving ranch house on the Point Reyes peninsula. It also has the greatest physical integrity among the area's ranches and retains archeological potential.","narrative":"Pierce Ranch is a dairy ranch headquarters on Tomales Point in Point Reyes National Seashore, near Inverness. Its buildings form two offset squares of white-painted structures among rows of windbreak trees. They include a sixteen-room main house combining a section believed to date from 1869 with an older portion said to date from 1856, a hay barn, a horse barn, dairy houses, bunkhouses, and a school house. A road leads down to the ruins of a pier on Tomales Bay, where butter and other products were loaded on boats. The ranch was founded after Solomon Pierce bought the Tomales Point tract in 1858. It was listed as one of the notable dairy ranches supplying San Francisco, and for many years led Point Reyes Township in butter production. Its buildings and setting keep the character of a late 19th and early 20th century Pacific Coast dairy ranch, which accounts for its recognition.","period_of_significance":"1856-1935","architect_builder":"Solomon Pierce and others","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as occupied, with conditions ranging from excellent to ruins; the school house was recently restored by the National Park Service, and the lower ranch buildings were removed about 1975.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:26.883878-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/85003324.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85003324/95729f2569-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85003324/95729f2569-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Frank Schulenburg","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pierce_Point_Ranch.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Frank Schulenburg</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pierce_Point_Ranch.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123859700","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19904547"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/marin-county/pierce-ranch-85003324/"}